National Party police spokesperson Mark Mitchell wants the Government to release more specific data on police's operation targeting gang members. Photo / Laura Smith
National Party police spokesperson Mark Mitchell wants the Government to release more specific data on police's operation targeting gang members. Photo / Laura Smith
National’s police spokesman Mark Mitchell says his party will “fill the void” describing the state of crime in New Zealand if the Government produces unclear data, even if it risks misinforming the public.
He also claims it no longer matters to the public whether official statistics indicated lower levels of crime because he believes the public knows “inherently that this country is a lot more dangerous than what it was six years ago”.
A recent Herald deep dive into crime over the decades shows between 2017, when Labour first came into Government, and 2022, the total number of people charged and convicted for all offences dropped by about a quarter.
Mitchell’s comments come after he received a barrage of criticism from Police Minister Ginny Andersen for claiming yesterday that half of 41,000 charges laid through the gang-focused Operation Cobalt were “minor offences”, despite those charges potentially including burglary, theft, drink-driving and breaches of bail.
Today, Mitchell told the Herald he did not think offences including burglary were minor, but said he could only work with the data the Government supplied which only referenced offence categories and not a breakdown by charge.
“We’ve used what they said back to us... but we’ve got no detail,” he said.
National's Mark Mitchell at a public meeting in Auckland. Photo / Tania Whyte
Asked whether it was appropriate to make public claims relating to crime without the most accurate information, Mitchell believed he was entitled to respond to Government-provided data.
“[The Government is] trying to create an impression that Operation Cobalt is getting on top of the gang problem when everyone can see that it isn’t and we’re challenging the numbers and because they won’t give us the information, we will fill the void with that.
“Every time we talk about Cobalt, every time we talk about crime, that’s talking about the issue that we want to drive home on this Government, so it doesn’t matter whether it’s negative, positive or in between, the public is already in a space where they know inherently that this country is a lot more dangerous than what it was six years ago.”
Police Minister Ginny Andersen said it was “frankly appalling” to undermine the efforts of police officers working to limit the harmful reach of gangs.
“I want Mark to step up and explain to the police frontline why he has a problem with them arresting gang members for burglary and theft.
“And I want him to explain why he doesn’t think that reckless driving that endangers lives is more than ‘minor’.”
The spat between Mitchell and Andersen originated from data provided to Mitchell which group the more than 41,000 Operation Cobalt charges into offence categories.
Police Minister Ginny Andersen wants her National opposite to front up after his comments. Photo / Mark Mitchell
According to that table, 11,000 charges were for “dishonesty” offences, almost 8000 for traffic offences and 3000 for administrative offences.
In a press release yesterday, Mitchell considered these offences “minor” and proved to him the Government wasn’t serious about targeting gang members - the purpose of Operation Cobalt.
Further inquiry from the Herald found those three offences could include charges of burglary, theft, fraud, reckless driving, drink-driving, fraud and breaches of bail.
Mitchell accepted burglary was “deeply traumatic” and a “huge invasion of privacy”, but did not walk back his comments saying the offences were minor.
“Well, we can only go off what they’ve given us... I can’t comment until I see the numbers.
“I’m not making any concessions or saying anything until the Government gives us the breakdown and I’m telling you that right now, this is a complete echo chamber because the public has already made up their mind [on the level of crime].”
The Herald’s recent analysis found the number of people charged with a crime in New Zealand now was about a third of what it was in 1981 — and there were 2 million fewer people in New Zealand then.
Despite this, the frequency of violent offending committed by young people had increased, most notably through a spike in ram raids and aggravated burglaries in recent years.
In the last month, there had been several shootings in Auckland alongside gang tensions rising in Manawatū. One incident when two construction workers were shot dead was reported globally partly because it was on the same day as the beginning of the Women’s Fifa World Cup.
Crime is regularly cited as people’s primary election issue alongside the cost of living.
Adam Pearse is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team, based at Parliament. He has worked for NZME since 2018, covering sport and health for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei before moving to the Herald in Auckland, covering Covid-19 and crime.
